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arXiv:2606.25555

Broadband Rydberg Atomic Microwave Sensing with 44.6$\,$MHz Instantaneous Bandwidth

Yuhan Yan, Xuejie Li, Jinyin 金银 Wan 万, Xing Xia, Haojie Zhao, B. X. Yu, 邓见辽, Huadong Cheng, L. Q. Chen

Published Jun 24, 2026• 0 citations

Abstract

Rydberg atoms have become a promising novel type of microwave sensor due to their excellent physical properties -- broad frequency coverage and large electric dipole moments. High sensitivity and broad instantaneous bandwidth are two indispensable requirements for deployable Rydberg microwave sensors. However, enabling broadband operation while retaining high sensitivity has been a longstanding barrier limiting their applications. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a Rydberg microwave sensor whose instantaneous bandwidth is significantly enhanced via an auxiliary microwave field. By finely modulating the Rydberg energy levels with this field, we broaden the bandwidth substantially while retaining the sensor's inherent high sensitivity. An instantaneous bandwidth of 44.6$\,$MHz ($\pm$22.3$\,$MHz) with a sensitivity of 225.7$\,$nV$\,$cm$^{-1}\,$Hz$^{-1/2}$ is realized in a thermal \(^{87}\)Rb vapor with the local microwave frequency of 16.03$\,$GHz. Our work delivers concurrent broad instantaneous bandwidth and high sensitivity for Rydberg microwave sensors, paving a technically viable path for their practical deployment in broadband microwave metrology, radar, and wireless communication.

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2606.25555

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Broadband Rydberg Atomic Microwave Sensing with 44.6

\,

MHz Instantaneous Bandwidth

Rydberg atoms have become a promising novel type of microwave sensor due to their excellent physical properties -- broad frequency coverage and large electric dipole moments. High sensitivity and broad instantaneous bandwidth are two indispensable requirements for deployable Rydberg microwave sensors. However, enabling broadband operation while retaining high sensitivity has been a longstanding barrier limiting their applications. We propose and experimentally demonstrate a Rydberg microwave sensor whose instantaneous bandwidth is significantly enhanced via an auxiliary microwave field. By finely modulating the Rydberg energy levels with this field, we broaden the bandwidth substantially while retaining the sensor's inherent high sensitivity. An instantaneous bandwidth of 44.6

\,

MHz (

\pm

22.3

\,

MHz) with a sensitivity of 225.7

\,

nV

\,

cm

^{-1}\,

Hz

^{-1/2}

is realized in a thermal (^{87})Rb vapor with the local microwave frequency of 16.03

\,

GHz. Our work delivers concurrent broad instantaneous bandwidth and high sensitivity for Rydberg microwave sensors, paving a technically viable path for their practical deployment in broadband microwave metrology, radar, and wireless communication.

Achieving 100

\,

MHz Instantaneous Bandwidth in a Broadband Rydberg Microwave Sensor

Rydberg atoms have attracted considerable attention in recent years as a novel platform for microwave sensing, owing to their unique physical merits: large transition dipole moments between Rydberg levels and broad frequency coverage. As a critical figure of merit for Rydberg microwave sensors, instantaneous bandwidth serves as a key benchmark for evaluating their viability in practical applications. Previous studies on instantaneous bandwidth remain limited to single-frequency operation, with typical demonstrated values of only tens of megahertz, a constraint that hampers the real-world deployment of this sensing technology. Here, we experimentally achieve an instantaneous bandwidth of over 100

\,

MHz across a broad frequency range of 2.7-20

\,

GHz and realize a sensitivity in the hundreds of nV

\,

cm

^{-1}\,

Hz

^{-1/2}

range. The physical mechanism lies in the dressed-state coherence and the interference effect between different transition channels. Our work substantially broadens the instantaneous bandwidth of Rydberg microwave sensors and paves the way for their practical deployment in fields such as radar and wireless communications.

Rydberg atoms, with their giant transition electric dipole moments and abundant energy-level transitions, offer exceptional potential for microwave (MW) electric field sensing, combining high sensitivity and broad frequency coverage. However, simultaneously achieving high sensitivity and broad instantaneous bandwidth in a Rydberg-based MW sensor remains a critical challenge. Here, we propose a multi-dressed-state engineered superheterodyne detection scheme for Rydberg electrometry to overcome this challenge. It is found that the key to simultaneously achieving large instantaneous bandwidth and high sensitivity lies in the coherence of dressed states and the interference between transition channels of dressed states. By strategically engineering the multiple dressed states of Rydberg atoms, we demonstrate a thermal

\mathrm{^{87}Rb}

vapor-based sensor with a sensitivity of 222.6

\,

nV

\,

cm

^{-1}\,

Hz

^{-1/2}

and a record instantaneous bandwidth of 76.8

\,

MHz with the local microwave frequency 16.03

\,

GHz. This advancement paves the way for Rydberg-atom technologies in radar, wireless communication, and spectrum monitoring.

We present a Rydberg atom-based microwave electric field sensor that achieves extended dynamic range and enhanced sensitivity across a broad bandwidth. By characterizing the Autler-Townes (AT) splitting induced by a single-tone microwave field, we demonstrate a spectroscopic method that simultaneously extracts both the microwave frequency and electric field strength directly from the splitting pattern. We implement dual-tone heterodyne detection, achieving a minimum detectable field strength on the order of uV/cm and a sensitivity in the sub-uV/cm/Hz^1/2 regime, while extending the operational bandwidth up to 3 GHz. Through systematic characterization of frequency and power dependencies, we identify optimal operating conditions to minimize power broadening in the resonant AT regime and maximize sensitivity in the far-off-resonance AC Stark regime. The resulting platform combines high sensitivity, broad bandwidth, and a dynamic range of approximately 90 dB, establishing Rydberg atoms as practical sensors for precision electric field metrology.

Rydberg microwave electrometry has attracted great attention, due to its potential application in radar and communication, but simultaneously achieving high sensitivity and broad instantaneous bandwidth remains a challenge. This study demonstrates an enhanced instantaneous bandwidth of \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}10.2 MHz with sensitivity of 62 nV cm${}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ Hz${}^{\ensuremath{-}1/2}$ by the amplification of one sideband wave in the six-wave-mixing process of a Rydberg superheterodyne receiver.

Rydberg microwave (MW) sensors are superior to conventional antenna-based techniques because of their wide operating frequency range and outstanding potential sensitivity. Here, we demonstrate a Rydberg microwave receiver with a high sensitivity of

62\,\mathrm{nV} \mathrm{cm}^{-1} \mathrm{Hz}^{-1/2}

and broad instantaneous bandwidth of up to

10.2\,\mathrm{MHz}

. Such excellent performance was achieved by the amplification of one generated sideband wave induced by the strong coupling field in the six-wave mixing process of the Rydberg superheterodyne receiver, which was well predicted by our theory. Our system, which possesses a uniquely enhanced instantaneous bandwidth and high-sensitivity features that can be improved further, will promote the application of Rydberg microwave electrometry in radar and communication.

The Rydberg atom-based microwave electric field sensor has high sensitivity for weak RF-field detection. Selection of Rydberg states with larger electric dipole moment is beneficial to enhance the sensitivity, and we choose Rydberg states with its principal quantum number up to n ∼ 80. We study the probe laser transmission response to a microwave field for these chosen high Rydberg states at room temperature. It agrees well with theoretical simulation based on an optical Bloch equation with considered microwave-atom interaction and Doppler broadening effect. In our experiment, the microwave sensing sensitivity based on 85 Rb transition | 78 S 1 / 2 ⟩ → | 78 P 3 / 2 ⟩ arrives at 5.102(49) nV cm − 1 Hz − 1 / 2 at 1 kHz.